Former girlfriend of Mark Shand, the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall,
describes how a night of celebration in New York ended in tragedy

In the final moments of his life Mark Shand, the brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, appeared to his friends to be “very peaceful”.

As he lay in his hospital bed in a deep coma, his colleagues from the elephant charity he founded delivered their last message.

“I was telling him to be with his oceans, his elephants, his jungle. I said that I would never give up, that I would keep going,” Ruth Powys, his close friend told The Telegraph."We used to talk about his lion heart, it was just like watching a lion fall."

Mr Shand had slipped, fallen and hit his head on the pavement outside a bar in New York. It happened so quickly that his family, including his 19-year-old daughter Ayesha, were unable to be at his bedside.

They instead relayed their messages of love and support from abroad through Miss Powys, who held his hand as he slipped away.

“I was holding his hand and had my other hand on his heart as it stopped,” Miss Powys said. "He was the greatest love of my life, and now we've got to do without him.”

Less than nine hours earlier Mr Shand, 62, had been celebrating one of the greatest nights of his life.

His charity, the Elephant Family, had raised more than £1 million from the sale of giant Faberge eggs bearing the designs of contemporary artists.

When Miss Powys, the chief executive of the charity and his former girlfriend, left him for the evening at the after-party he was in full-flow.

She said: “He was dancing, he was happy, his team had pulled off a great success. The years and years of hard work had paid off and he knew we were going to succeed.

“He out-partied me in his bright yellow shirt, dancing to Satisfaction. It was typical Mark – he was drinking with the people who had made it happen, the deliverers, his charity colleagues, while the great and good had gone.

“I gave him a big kiss and a hug, we were going to take a road trip to celebrate. I told him I’d see him tomorrow, but a couple of hours later he was in hospital.”

Miss Powys said that Mr Shand had gone on to another bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel with Alexandra Bowes-Lyon, a new recruit at the charity, and her boyfriend.

“She was the new girl, the latest and greatest and he adored her. They had enjoyed a few drinks but he wasn’t inebriated. They said they should call it a night and left the hotel.

“On the way out he fell straight on his head. The sound of the crack was incredible, so much so that passers-by were immediately calling an ambulance.”

Mr Shand’s sudden passing left his family and friends struggling to comprehend how he can be gone so quickly.

Ayesha yesterday paid tribute to her father by posting a picture of them smiling together on Facebook.

“He loved Ayesha, he wanted to be the best father in the world," said Miss Powys. "She [Ayesha] was his number one."

Tom Parker Bowles and Ben Elliot, the Duchess of Cornwall's nephews, have flown out to New York to bring Mr Shand's body back home.

Mr Parker Bowles expressed thanks for the tributes paid to his "late, great" uncle. He said on Twitter: "A massive thank you for everyone's lovely words about our late, great uncle Mark Shand. Deeply appreciated."

On Wednesday night, his colleagues from the Elephant Family gathered in New York to comfort one another and to celebrate Mark's life. They were joined by Princess Eugenie of York, who was a strong supporter of the charity and "loved" Mark.

"We talked about him, we just wanted to talk about him," said Miss Powys. "She [Eugenie] loved him, she is devastated but everyone is trying to do what Mark would do which is to hold it together as much as we can and celebrate him."

Mr Shand's death at the age of 62 came after what by any measure had been a remarkable life.

As a young man he was a renowned playboy who dated some of the world's most beautiful women. In his later years he found his calling as a conservationist and became the world's leading advocate for the conservation of Asian elephants.

Miss Powys met Mr Shand almost a decade ago to the day, when the pair founded the Elephant Family in Bloomsbury, central London.

“It was me, Mark, two empty rooms and an idea, she said. “I didn’t know him before we met but we clicked straight away.

“We had the same spirit, even though I was a meat and potato girl from the North. Mark was a believer in youth and we had the same energy and absolute determination, he was up for every crazy idea.”

Mr Shand’s devotion for the Asian elephant had begun after he was thrown out of school for smoking cannabis at 16 and decided to join the “hippy trail” in Bali.

In Daspalla, East India, he met Tara, an Asian elephant, on a street corner. He embarked on an 800 mile odyssey with her which became the subject of his book, Travels on My Elephant. It proved a huge bestseller.

“He used to say we love elephants because they are awesome animals, and use that Picasso quote, the elephant is evidence that God is an artist,” she said.

“We didn’t look at what other charities were doing. We asked how we could make people care about elephants in London. The answer was to put the elephants in front of them in London.”

The charity’s first major success was in 2007, when it made a life-size herd of elephants of willow draped in blankets from fashion houses such as Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger. “We put them in Hyde Park and called it conservation couture,” said Miss Powys.

Realising that they had found a “winning combination”, in 2010 they mounted the biggest public art exhibition London has ever seen.

A herd of 260 brightly coloured elephants was installed around London as part of an “elephant parade” in a project driven by Mr Shand. “Mark was on the street with a drill installing them, even though he was in his 50s. His energy was amazing,” she said.

For Miss Powys, Mr Shand opened up a “magical world” where she met everyone from the mahouts who care for Asian elephants to ministers and Hollywood celebrities like Goldie Hawn.

She also met royalty. The Prince of Wales married the Duchess of Cornwall in 2005, and Mr Shand was always “conscious” of protecting the sister he loved.

“He was always conscious [of Camilla],” Miss Powys said. “He never wanted to put a foot wrong or in any way put her in a difficult position.”

In 2010 Mr Shand and his wife of 20 years, Clio Goldsmith, divorced. “It was a hard time,” she said. “It was amicable, they had grown apart.”

After the divorce, Mr Shand and Miss Powys began seeing each other. “We got so close, we had been through so much,” she said. “There was an age gap and I worried about how it would look – an older man, with a younger woman. I didn’t want to hurt his ex-wife, I didn’t ever want to go public. We were very happy, very grateful to each other.”

She met the Duchess of Cornwall on several occasions, including at a charity event where she introduced her to other guests.

She said: “I met her [Camilla] and she gave me a hug, she knew we were close. She was very down to earth and had a great sense of humour.

“At the party I was getting everyone mixed up when I was introducing her to people. She was so forgiving and so funny.”

After two years the couple split up, with Mr Shand telling Miss Powys that she deserved to be with someone her own age.

“He wanted the best for me. We started off as best friends and went back to being that. Somewhere in the middle we crossed a line. He was the greatest love of my life.”

The funeral is expected to take place next week. In the meantime Miss Powys has been left to go through the hundreds of messages from well-wishers and loved ones.

"I feel so afraid. I know I have to carry it forward and I'm sure that all of his supporters will try and make sure we save these incredible animals,” she said.

* The Elephant Family has set up a memorial fund for Mark Shand to celebrate his dedication to saving the Asian elephant from extinction. http://www.elephantfamily.org/who-we-are/about-us/mark-shand/